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What was the UK recorded rape rate per 100,000 population in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024?
Executive Summary
The materials provided do not contain a direct statement of the UK (or England and Wales) recorded rape rate per 100,000 population for 2020–2024; instead they supply police-recorded counts for financial years and survey prevalence figures, which cannot be converted into per-100,000 rates without explicit population denominators. The clearest, repeated data in the supplied analyses are annual counts of police-recorded rape offences for England and Wales—55,685 (2020/21), 70,031 (2021/22), 68,834 (2022/23), 67,818 (2023/24) and 71,667 (2024/25)—and broader prevalence and prosecution context that must be combined with official mid-year population figures to produce rates per 100,000 [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Why the exact “per 100,000” figure is missing — the gap between counts and rates
The core issue is that the provided sources supply counts of police-recorded rape offences, not rates standardized to population size. Multiple summaries explicitly list annual recorded rape counts for England and Wales across consecutive reporting years, showing a marked rise since 2012/13 and year-to-year fluctuations in the 2020–2024 period (notably 55,685 in 2020/21 rising to 70,031 in 2021/22 and 71,667 in 2024/25). Those counts are useful for trend analysis of recorded crime, but the calculation of a rate per 100,000 requires a denominator — the total population of the area covered by those counts for each reporting period. The analyses reference relevant datasets and survey publications but do not provide the population figures needed to compute standardized rates [1] [2] [5].
2. The best, directly usable numbers available in the materials — police-recorded counts
What the supplied materials do give you, repeatedly and consistently, are police-recorded rape offence totals for the England and Wales reporting years: 55,685 (2020/21), 70,031 (2021/22), 68,834 (2022/23), 67,818 (2023/24) and 71,667 (2024/25). These counts come from crime-recording datasets summarized in the analyses and are the most concrete metrics the materials offer for the time window you specified. Those figures allow analysts to track recorded incidence and year-on-year changes, and they underpin claims about increases in reporting and the pressures on criminal justice processes, but they remain raw counts rather than population-standardized rates [1] [2].
3. Why reported counts and survey prevalence tell different stories — context you can’t ignore
The materials also highlight nationally representative survey results and criminal justice outcomes that complicate simple rate interpretation. Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) prevalence estimates show hundreds of thousands experiencing sexual assault or rape in single-year snapshots; police-recorded rape forms a much smaller subset of incidents that enter the formal recording system. The documents note improved police recording practices and increased reporting as drivers of rising recorded counts, while charging rates remain low — for example, only a small percentage of recorded rapes proceed to charges, and thousands of recorded rapes in a year can yield a very small charge rate [4] [3]. Those dynamics mean a rising recorded count can reflect greater reporting rather than a simple rise in incidence.
4. How you would produce the per-100,000 rates accurately — the missing calculation step
To compute a legitimate rate per 100,000 population for each year cited, combine the police-recorded rape count for the relevant reporting period with the corresponding mid-year population estimate for the same geographic coverage (England and Wales) and reporting period, then multiply by 100,000. The supplied analyses point to where those datasets exist (ONS and related tables) but do not include the population denominators themselves. Without quoting external population figures beyond the provided material, producing per-100,000 rates would be a methodological leap outside the supplied evidence. The provided notes explicitly recommend consulting the published datasets to perform that standardization [5] [1].
5. What the provided evidence implies and what further sources to consult next
The assembled evidence implies a sustained high volume of police-recorded rapes in recent years with notable year-to-year volatility and systemic issues in charging and case progression. For an authoritative per-100,000 calculation, consult the Office for National Statistics or the specific datasets referenced in the supplied analyses to obtain mid-year population estimates for England and Wales for each reporting year, then divide the recorded counts by those populations and scale by 100,000. The supplied materials point to the exact counts and to CSEW prevalence and criminal justice performance figures that must accompany any rate-based interpretation to avoid misleading conclusions about underlying incidence versus changes in recording and reporting [1] [2] [4] [5].